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Early American Marxism website -- New Files
Update 12-15: Sunday, April 8, 2012.
Here are 7 more new files posted this week to the Early American Marxism
website.
All files are freely accessible and may be used non-commercially by any
interested
individual.
For links to all of these files, visit
http://www.marxisthistory.org/subject/usa/eam/12-15.html
Thanks for your interest,
Tim Davenport
Early American Marxism website
Corvallis, OR
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NEW PUBLICATIONS 12-15 * APRIL 8, 2012.
=========================================
Final installment of the New York Call's serialized expose of the postal
censorship
list of the Woodrow Wilson Administration. Included here are several
non-socialist
public figures, including lawyer Samuel Untermyer (who had represented the
Rand
School of Social Science in its legal defense), anti-conscription Populist
newspaper
publisher and former Presidential candidate Thomas E. Watson, and mild
mannered
pacifist Reverend of the Church of the Holy Trinity Howard Mellish. The
unnamed
author optimistically declares that "the espionage system sounds the
death-knell of
the Democratic Party, just as the Alien and Sedition law sounded that of the
Federalist Party, which fell, never to rise again."
(2) "Federation is Active Agent for Socialism: Presents Party Issues to
Jewish-Speaking People Through Own Weekly Publication," by Joshua P.
Landon [Aug.
31, 1919]
With seven of the foreign language federations of the Socialist Party
abandoning the
organization in favor of the Left Wing course the role of the these
institutions in
the SPA moving forward was a question of some debate. This short piece
from the New
York Call by a supporter of the Yiddish-language Jewish Socialist
Federation details
political developments in that group for a broader audience. Landon notes
that after
two days of debate the recently completed 1919 convention of the JSF had
voted 74-35
to remain affiliated with the SPA rather than to cast their lot with the
Left Wing
Section. This decision had prompted a walkout by 29 delegates, led by
Alexander
Bittelman, who had established their own Left Wing federation. Those
remaining
retained close ties both to the Socialist Party and the Jewish labor
movement,
Landon indicates. The JSF maintained a steady stream of speakers in the
field,
Landon states, as well as publishing its own organ, Naye Welt, edited by J.B.
Salutsky.
(3) "Socialist Party Wins Primary Contest in All But Few Districts:
Manhattan and
Bronx Boroughs Carried Completely by Regular Organization Candidates." (NY
Call)
[Sept. 2, 1919]
Lest there be any doubt about the inevitability of a split of the
Socialist Party in
the summer of 1919, here are the voting results of the Socialist Party's
Sept. 2,
1919 primary election in New York City. In this election the Left Wing
Section
fielded and promoted a full slate of candidates against the SPA's Regulars
(who
touted their own slate in the pages of the New York Call). Even as the
Socialist
Party was in the process of shattering at the Chicago convention, the
Regulars were
scoring a decisive victory in the primaries -- with the battle between the
factions
contested with particular vigor in Brooklyn. In duels between prominent
figures,
journalist William Morris Feigenbaum topped Left Winger Bert Wolfe in the 6th
Assembly District, 61-42, while future Assemblyman Charles Solomon beat
Harry Waton
516 to 74 in the 33rd Assembly District. In the 59th Aldermanic District
of Brooklyn
Abraham Shiplacoff decisively defeated Left Winger Morris Zucker also by
the exact
count of 516 to 74. Other prominent figures of the nascent Communist movement
falling in the primary included Ludwig Lore, Edward Lindgren, and Will
Weinstone.
(4) "St. Louis, Missouri Local Completely Reorganized." (NY Call) [events
of Aug.
13-25, 1919]
This short piece from the New York Call documents another example of the
cavalier
manner in which the dominant Regular faction of the Socialist Party
violated party
legality during the days leading up to the 1919 Emergency National
Convention that
formalized a split into rival Socialist and Communist organizations. With the
Regulars outvoted 16-15 by the Left Wing at a meeting of the General
Committee of
Local St. Louis, a general membership meeting desired by the Regulars was
moved to
the same time and place as a public meeting featuring a prominent Left
Wing speaker.
The minority appealed the decision to the Regular-dominated State
Committee, which
declared this decision "in violation of our party constitution and
contrary to all
precedents in the Socialist Party." The State Committee then -- without
notification
or hearings -- rushed a decision to summarily dissolve Local St. Louis,
appoint a
committee to seize its property, and to dispatch National Secretary Adolph
Germer to
the city to supervise the "reorganization" the Local just ahead of the
Aug. 30
National Convention, thus effectively expelling its Left Wing membership.
William
Brandt, Otto Pauls, and Gus Hoehn were appointed as a troika "to
temporarily take
possession of all the property of Local St. Louis, in the name of the
Socialist
Party of Missouri, until the Local was properly organized."
(5) "Notes of A Marxist," by Haim Kantorovitch [circa September 1934]
(6) "The United Front," by Haim Kantorovitch [December 1934]
Assessment of the tactic of the United Front by an ideological leader of the
Socialist Party of America's "Militant" faction, Haim Kantorovich.
Kantorovich
excuses the Socialist International's decision to neither sanction nor ban
united
front actions between member Socialist Parties and Communist Parties in
those same
countries, declaring that a firm decision on either side of this question
would have
prompted an organizational split. Kantorovich notes that the Communist
movement had
put an enormous amount of money and effort into circulating united front
literature,
which had only recently shifted in orientation. "We do not hear so often from
Communists now that every non-Communist is a traitor, a lackey of the
bourgeoisie, a
fighter for capitalism and fascism, or just a plain faker.... The tenor of
the
newest literature is the falsification of the history of the Socialist as
well as of
the Communist movement. The aim of this literature is, above all, to place
the guilt
for the original split in the Socialist and labor movement on the
Socialists.... In
order 'to prove' these falsifications the literature is filled with
misquotations,
perversions of truths, and downright lies." Kantorovich notes that since its
inception in 1921 the united front had been transparently intended as "a
new method
of destroying the Socialist movement" through subtle splitting pressure.
Kantorovich
maintains that the current effort to forge an alliance between the CPUSA
and the SPA
is not a true united front of the working class in that it excludes other
organizations and moreover continues the CPUSA's ongoing goal of wrecking
rather
than aiding the existing trade union movement. To the question of whether
the SP is
ready for a united front, Kantorovich answers: "As soon as you liquidate
the theory
of social fascism, agree to a united front inclusive of all proletarian
parties and
groups, and give up your harmful and suicidal (for you) trade union
tactics, there
will be a real united front. The Socialists are ready and waiting. It is
up to you
to make the united front possible. Will you?"
(7) "Launch Workers Party of US: CLA and AWP in Fusion Convention of US
Revolutionaries." (The Militant) [event of Dec. 2, 1934]
Official published account of the formation of the Workers Party of the
United
States, created via a merger of the Trotskyist Communist League of America
headed by
Jim Cannon and Max Shachtman and the American Workers Party led by A.J.
Muste. Muste
was to be Secretary of the new organization and Cannon the editor of the
official
organ, to be called The New Militant. The New York City gathering was
addressed by
Muste to open the proceedings, while former CLA member Vincent Dunne, a
leader of
the Minneapolis Teamsters' strike, delivered the keynote speech. A 22 member
national executive committee was elected, 11 from each constituent group,
from which
a Political Bureau of 10 was to be elected. A constitution, agreed upon in
the
pre-merger negotiations, was passed with minor amendments from the floor.
=====================================
NEW ON WIKIPEDIA THIS WEEK
=====================================
4th World Congress of the Comintern (Nov.-Dec. 1922) - [Launched, work
continuing] -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4th_World_Congress_of_the_Comintern
Socialist Sunday Schools (1880s-1920s) - Socialist youth educational
institutions
[Expanded]-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Sunday_Schools
=====================================
NEW ON ARCHIVE.ORG THIS WEEK
=====================================
International Socialist Review, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Oct. 1901)
http://archive.org/details/InternationalSocialistReview-Vol.2No.4-Oct1901
Unsigned (A.M. Simons) -- Anarchy vs. Socialism -- pg. 241-250
Louis Bertrand -- Cooperative Movement in Belgium [pt. 1] -- pp. 251-262
"Catholicus" -- A Catholic View of Socialism -- pp. 262-264
Alessandro Schlavi -- Trade Unionism and Socialism in Italy -- pp.. 265-270
George Weulersse -- The Yellow Peril -- pp. 271-275
Carl Pankopf -- Mysticism of Our Labor Statistics -- pp. 276-279
Ernest Crosby -- The Hero [poem] -- pg. 280
"Marxist" -- In the Matter of Malthus, et al., Bankrupts -- pp. 281-283
Henry Frank -- The Banishment of Tolstoi -- pp. 284-286
Caroline H. Pemberton -- The Charity Girl (chap. 14-15) [fiction] -- pp.
287-297
Ernest Untermann -- Socialism Abroad [column] -- pp. 298-306
***** (includes material on France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Italy,
Argentina, Switzerland, Japan, Holland, New Zealand, Bulgaria)
Max S. Hayes -- The World of Labor [column] -- pp. 307-310
Book Reviews -- pp. 311-313
A.M. Simons -- Editorial: Roosevelt - A Character Sketch -- pp. 314-315
A.M. Simons -- Editorial: The Steel Strike -- pp. 315-316
International Socialist Review, Vol. 2, No. 5 (Nov. 1901)
http://archive.org/details/InternationalSocialistReview-Vol.2No.5-Nov1901
Clarence S. Darrow -- The Problem of the Negro [speech of 5/19/01] -- pp.
321-335
Ella Wheeler Wilcox -- Count Rumford and Our Unemployed -- pp. 336-339
Louis Bertrand -- The Cooperative Movement in Belgium [part 2] -- pp. 340-350
Parvus [I.L. Gelfand] -- Opportunism in Practice -- pp. 351-362
Frederich Irons Bamford -- The Trade Unionist, Regnant [poem] -- pg. 363
Caroline H. Pemberton -- The Charity Girl (chap. 16-17) [fiction] -- pp.
364-378
Ernest Untermann -- Socialism Abroad [column] -- pp. 379-382
***** (includes material on Germany, France)
Max S. Hayes -- The World of Labor [column] -- pp. 383-386
Book Reviews -- pp. 387-391
A.M. Simons -- Editorial: Press Censorship in America -- pp. 392-395
Charles H. Kerr -- Publishers' Department -- pp. 396-399
***** (Announcement of launch of Standard Socialist Series of pocket
hardbacks)
(end)